SOLAR TURBINES BUFFER ZONE APPROVED

CivicSD bars residential uses near the company

Civic San Diego approved new zoning Wednesday for the area around Solar Turbines near Lindbergh Field to avoid the 2012 battle over building housing near industrial uses.

The change, if approved in January by the City Council, would create a 12-acre buffer zone on nine blocks in the northern section of Little Italy, roughly bounded by Pacific Highway, Kettner Boulevard, and Grape and Laurel streets.

CivicSD’s board, which oversees downtown development planning and zoning issues for the city, approved the change without discussion.

The 2006 downtown community plan had designated the area for mixed-use development, in which as many as 862 apartments and condos would coexist with commercial uses.

But when developers of Fat City Lofts proposed a 232-apartment project on the site of old Fat City-China Camp restaurant, built as Top’s nightclub in 1941 at Hawthorn and Pacific Highway, Solar Turbines objected. The company said residential use could interfere with the industrial operations immediately west that have been there since the 1920s.

Under intense pressure from the business community, CivicSD turned down Fat City Lofts, and a new developer won approval for a 364-room hotel that would retain a portion of the pink building’s Art Deco tower and other features.

The city’s general plan had previously suggested 1,000-foot buffers between industrial and residential uses. But CivicSD planners said that distance would foreclose more housing development in the Little Italy area.

The new “industrial buffer overlay zone” will now extend 635 feet from Solar’s property, which is leased from the San Diego Unified Port District through 2033. Presumably, if Solar ever leaves its 22-acre site, the port could lease to a nonindustrial user, but the downtown plan would have to be changed again.

In the 1980s, Solar proposed relocating its plant and building a resort on the site, but Solar has since won an extension of its lease for current uses. It also operates a turbine factory in Kearny Mesa.

CivicSD held off acting on the change until the City Council approved a new Barrio Logan community plan last month. It, too, includes a buffer zone between shipyards and housing.

But that detail upset shipyard suppliers, and a referendum campaign is under way to overturn the plan at next June’s ballot box.